2020 I ISSUE #20

EUROPEAN DEFENCE MATTERS

What the first Coordinated Annual Review on Defence reveals CARDs on the table

> A ‘STRATEGIC COMPASS’ > CIRCULAR ECONOMY IN > EDA INNOVATION FOR THE EU’S CSDP DEFENCE PRIZE 2020 EEAS’ Charles Fries The Commission’s new And the on what to expect Incubation Forum winners are... CONTENTS

WELCOME 3

COVER STORY: 1st COORDINATED ANNUAL REVIEW ON DEFENCE (CARD) > First CARD report published Wake-up call and pathfinder: analysis of the main CARD findings & recommendations 4 > After the first CARD: What’s next? Giving the floor to Member States – interviews 10 > Arie Jan De Waard, Armaments Director, The 11 > Simona Cojocaru, Defence State Secretary, Romania 12 > Saturnino Suanzes Fernández de Cañete, Capability Director, 13 Opinion Editorial: Éric Bellot des Minières 14 The view of the EU Military Staff (EUMS): 04 Vice- Hervé Bléjean 16 © , Vincent Bordignon > From CARD to PESCO How EDA supports the implementation of PESCO projects 18

FOCUS > German EU Presidency Strengthening the EU on security and defence: Opinion Editorial by German Defence State Secretary, Benedikt Zimmer 24

OPINION > EU Strategic Compass

11 Netherlands The of Defence © Ministry 12 of Defence © Romanian Ministry 13 of Defence © Spanish Ministry Concrete solutions for concrete challenges: article by Charles Fries, EEAS Deputy Secretary General for CSDP and Crisis Response 27

IN THE FIELD > Advancing Circular Economy in Defence > The road towards the ‘Incubation Forum for Circular Economy in European Defence’ 29 > Interview with (DG ENV) Director-General Florika Fink-Hooijer 32 34 © ESA > Three questions to... ’s Defence Minister François Bausch 33 Editor-in-Chief CONTACTS Helmut Brüls SPOTLIGHT Elisabeth Schoeffmann > EDA-EU SatCen cooperation Design Head of Media & Communication Simon Smith Associates Natural partners 34 Helmut Brüls Printing Media & Communication Officer Drukkerij Hendrix NV INDUSTRY TALK Kiezel Kleine-Brogel 55, B-3990 Peer Rue des Drapiers 17-23 > “We need to collaborate to create our own joint capabilities” B-1050 This document is published by EDA in Interview with Oliver Väärtnõu, CEO of Cybernetica 37 www.eda.europa.eu the interests of exchange of information Contact: [email protected] Front cover image; © Shutterstock INNOVATION CORNER Other images; EDA, Shutterstock, Catalogue number > EDA Defence Innovation Prize 2020 Thinkstock, iStockphoto QU-AC-20-002-EN-N ISSN (2443-5511) “And the winners are...” 40 EDA is a member of the European Military Press Association QUO VADIS EU DEFENCE? © European Defence Agency (EDA) November 2020. All rights reserved. The entire contents of this publication > A look beyond 2030 are protected by copyright. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means: electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, By Frédéric Mauro (IRIS) 42 without the prior permission of EDA. The reproduction of advertisements in this publication does not in any way imply endorsement of their content by EDA. The views expressed in the articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policy of EDA.

2 www.eda.europa.eu WELCOME Playing the CARD right To solve a problem efficiently, good practice calls first for a thorough and honest analysis of what is wrong only then to be followed by tailored corrective action. The EU’s endeavour to overcome the fragmentation of its defence landscape and move towards a more homogeneous, collaborative, efficient and interoperable Europe of defence, follows the same two-tier approach.

The first Coordinated Annual Review on Defence (CARD), just endorsed by Defence Ministers, is a crucial piece of work as it 18 offers both elements of the above-described remedy: a plain © French Marine Nationale description of the shortcomings of purely national defence planning and capability development done in isolation; and plenty of concrete recommendations on how to do things better in the future, together. Now, it’s up to Member States to make the best of them.

In the following pages, we analyse the key CARD findings and recommendations and take Member States’ pulse on the potential take-up of the collaborative opportunities identified by the CARD. We also look at the increasing number of PESCO projects whose implementation benefit from EDA support; also a reminder that the CARD’s goal is to spark collaborative projects which must eventually lead to joint defence capabilities.

32 33 We also hear from the German EU Presidency’s defence & security © European Commission © MoD Luxembourg priorities and get an insight into the ongoing work on the EU’s Strategic Compass. Furthermore, we put the spotlight on the Commission’s new Incubation Forum on Circular Economy in European defence as well as on EDA’s cooperation with the EU Satellite Centre. Finally, we can present the winners of the 2020 EDA Defence Innovation Prize.

We hope you will enjoy this magazine. Should you have comments or recommendations, please get in touch: [email protected]

24 Elisabeth Schoeffmann Helmut Brüls © - Jane Schmidt EDA Head of Media & Communication Editor-in-Chief

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EUROPEAN DEFENCE MATTERS I 2020 I Issue #20 3 COVER STORY – COORDINATED ANNUAL REVIEW ON DEFENCE (CARD)

First CARD report published Wake-up call and pathfinder

Frank in pointing to existing shortcomings, yet constructive by offering options for improvements to come: the first Coordinated Annual Review on Defence (CARD), steered by the European Defence Agency (EDA) as the CARD penholder in close coordination with the EU Military Staff (EUMS) over the past 12 months, has achieved its double goal which was to review participating Member States’ defence activities in order to provide a realistic picture of Europe’s defence landscape and to promote cooperation opportunities for joint defence capability development.

4 www.eda.europa.eu The first CARD report, presented by EDA months, saw EDA collecting and analysing defence landscape remains fragmented to Defence Ministers on 20 November, is information gathered from individual Member and lacks coherence in several aspects, the outcome of an innovative approach States on their respective national defence notably as regards defence capabilities launched four years ago when the EU Global plans, in order to identify current trends and their development: existing capabilities Strategy (EUGS) called for the “gradual (defence spending, ongoing capability are characterised by a very high diversity synchronisation and mutual adaptation programmes) and future cooperation of types in major equipment and of national defence planning cycles and opportunities. The rationale behind the different levels of modernisation and of capability development practices” to CARD is that the regular reviews, to be interoperability, including logistic systems enhance the convergence between Member done every two years, will lead over time to and supply chains. What’s more, the EU’s States’ military assets and boost defence more synergies and increased coherence Military Level of Ambition is currently cooperation among them. between Member States´ defence planning, not achievable and the commitment to spending and capability development, Common Security and Defence Policy That said, this was quickly done: EU through targeted cooperation. (CSDP) missions and operations is very countries approved the CARD modalities in low with strong disparities between May 2017, concluded a test cycle in late 2018 Plain analysis participating Member States in terms before kicking off the first full CARD cycle in The CARD report’s assessment of the of engagement frameworks and overall

September 2019 which, over a period of 10 current picture is unequivocal: Europe’s operational effort. Bordignon Vincent © Belgian Armed Forces,

EUROPEAN DEFENCE MATTERS I 2020 I Issue #20 5 COVER STORY – COORDINATED ANNUAL REVIEW ON DEFENCE (CARD)

Admittedly, the new EU defence cooperation This is also evidenced by the fact that “Europe’s defence tools launched since 2016 – the 2018 EU most Member States miss out on meeting capability development priorities resulting the collective European benchmarks on landscape remains from the revised Capability Development ‘collaborative equipment procurement’ fragmented and Plan (CDP), the CARD initiation, the (minimum 35% of total equipment spending) Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) and on ‘collaborative defence R&T’ (minimum lacks coherence in and the (EDF) – have 20% of total defence R&T spending), which several aspects” led to greater interaction among Member were commonly agreed more than a decade States as regards cooperation, including ago and adopted as individual PESCO dedicated projects in the PESCO framework. commitments in December 2017. However, they are too recent to deliver a significant and positive effect on guiding Consequently, defence spending on the trends on defence, on de-fragmentation collaborative projects remains scarce, and on increased operational commitment, also because budget allocations made by the CARD report stresses: “National defence Ministries of Defence to previously launched interests and related approaches continue national programmes leave limited margins to prevail”. for manoeuvre for collaborative defence spending until the mid-2020s. In the same Multinational cooperation still not a priority vein, the outlook for defence research and The fundamental problem, the CARD outlines, technology (R&T) spending levels continues is that only a few Member States consider to be insufficient, putting the EU strategic multinational cooperation in capability autonomy at risk, the report warns. development as a key characteristic of their national capability profile and/or have the Action is needed: Here’s a plan national ambition to actively contribute to The CARD’s most distinctive added value, shaping the European capability landscape. however, is that it does not limit itself

6 www.eda.europa.eu © EU Council CARD process: step-by-step towards the first report

• 19 June 2019: EDA’s Steering Board in Capability Director’s formation approves the CARD Methodology which will guide the process. • September 2019 - March 2020: EDA, in cooperation with the European External Action Service (EEAS) and the EUMS, gathers what is known as the CARD’s ‘initial information’ (Member States’ national defence spending, capability plans, defence cooperation ideas and opportunities) and holds bilateral dialogues with each of the 26 participating Member States. Those bilateral talks serve to validate the CARD’s initial information, explore collaborative opportunities, and discuss broader issues relevant to the EU defence landscape such as the implementation of the EU capability development priorities, coherence of © EUNAFVOR defence planning and European defence cooperation. • April 2020 - June 2020: EDA processes the CARD’s initial information provided to running a diagnostic of the current by the participating countries to produce what is known as the ‘CARD situation: it also puts forward numerous Aggregated Analysis’. Therein, the Agency aggregates and assesses the data options, potential action points and to identify patterns and possible trends in the European defence landscape. recommendations to Member States on It also analyses Member States’ responses to the collaborative opportunities how they can overcome the shortcomings, presented to them to derive potential focus areas for them to concentrate if they wish to. their efforts on. In addition, operational efforts and associated capability requirements are analysed by the EUMS and then integrated into the Aggregated Those recommendations cover the three Analysis which is presented to the Steering Board in Capability Director’s domains – all interlinked – where more formation and the Military Committee (EUMC). European thinking and action are deemed indispensable to overcome the current • July 2020 - November 2020: EDA, in close coordination with the EUMS, extracts fragmentation of the European defence political conclusions from the CARD Aggregated Analysis and proposes related landscape: defence spending, defence recommendations to participating Member States with the aim to improving planning and defence cooperation. the coherence of the European capability landscape. The draft CARD report is presented to Member States’ Capability, Armaments and R&T Directors as well Defence spending as the EUMC before it is presented to Defence Ministers meeting at the EDA Governments must avoid falling back into Ministerial Steering Board on 20 November 2020. the pre-2015 period when defence budgets kept shrinking year by year. Instead, they should sustain the (albeit moderate) trend be systematically compensated through on cutting-edge technology for defence of increasing national defence expenditure focused collaborative projects on capability capabilities at national and EU level, including witnessed since 2016 to assume a credible development and R&T, making full use of collaboration. role in defence for the EU. Now that the the EU defence initiatives, including the EDF. COVID-19 pandemic and its financial Ministries of Defence should also increase Defence planning burden are putting additional pressure on the share of R&T related expenditure This is probably the most crucial ingredient defence spending, potential cuts should within national defence budgets to deliver for moving towards a more coherent

EUROPEAN DEFENCE MATTERS I 2020 I Issue #20 7 COVER STORY – COORDINATED ANNUAL REVIEW ON DEFENCE (CARD)

“New collaborative CARD-recommended ‘focus projects in the six focus areas can have areas’ for cooperation a significant impact on The first CARD report recommends Member States should concentrate their both Member States’ collaborative capability development efforts on ‘next generation’ capabilities in the following six focus areas: capability profiles and the coherence of Main Battle Tank (MBT) – CARD recommends the joint development the overall European and acquisition of a next generation MBT in the long term (entry into service mid-2030s), and joint modernisation and upgrades of capability landscape” existing capabilities in the short-term. If Member States cooperate in upgrading or collaborate when introducing new ones, a reduction of types and variants by 30% by the mid-2030s can be obtained. 11 countries expressed an interest in cooperation going forward.

European Patrol Class Surface Ship – CARD recommends replacing coastal and offshore patrol vessels within the next decade and develop an EU-wide approach for modular naval platforms. Opportunities for cooperation in joint off-the-shelf procurement, common logistics for similar vessels, common future functional requirements were found with 7 countries expressing an interest in cooperation. European capability landscape: Member States need to think and plan their national Solider Systems – CARD recommends modernising soldier systems defence capability development from a through joint procurement of existing systems in the short term, wider European perspective, systematically including harmonising requirements, developing a user group for Joint looking for cooperation with other countries. Virtual Training & Exercises utilising common IT tools. In the long-term, Therefore, they need to consistently consider develop commonly shared architecture by mid-2020s for all and make the best use of the existing EU subsystems using cutting edge technology. 10 countries expressed defence cooperation tools (CDP, CARD, PESCO, an interest in cooperation going forward. EDF) in their own national defence planning processes. The ‘focus areas’ identified by the Counter UAS / A2/AD – CARD recommends developing a European first CARD report (see box) should facilitate capability to counter Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) to improve this process and, in fine, lead to collaborative force protection as well as contributing to establish a European projects implemented under PESCO, at EDA standard for Anti-Access/Area-Denial (A2/AD). In the A2/AD area, or in any other multinational format. Member cooperation is key to enable integration of air defence systems and States must get used to jointly preparing the combined assets, which is the only way to cope with modern threats planning horizon (beyond mid-2020s) for in modern engagements in coalition operations. increased and more substantial cooperation in capability development in a structured Defence in Space – CARD recommends developing a European and more targeted manner, making EU approach to defence in space to improve access to space services cooperation the norm. and protection of space-based assets. As an emerging operational domain, more collaboration would contribute to a greater involvement Defence cooperation through joint of Ministries of Defence and recognition of military requirements in projects wider space programmes conducted at EU level. This fundamental change of mindset in national defence planning should trigger Enhanced – CARD recommends more active more multinational capability projects and participation of all Member States in military mobility programmes, programmes. To get there, it is necessary notably air and sea lift transportation, logistic facilities and increased that Ministries of Defence use the EU resilience of related IT systems and processed under hybrid warfare defence tools to engage in and commit conditions by the mid-2020s. to proposed collaborative opportunities (capability development, R&T, industry) in

8 www.eda.europa.eu © Bundeswehr - Marco Dorow order to bring their defence apparatus into Launching new collaborative projects in wave of proposals in the PESCO context line with each other. the six focus areas can bear a “significant as well as the upcoming EDF annual work impact on both Member States capability programmes). Which are the most promising cooperation profiles and the coherence of overall opportunities identified by CARD? European capability landscape”, the report The report also stresses that collaborative states. development of capabilities in these six Collaborative opportunities and focus areas focus areas requires industrial cooperation The first CARD identifies a total of 55 In addition to that, 56 options to cooperate for prime contractors, mid-caps and SMEs collaborative opportunities throughout the in R&T have been identified as well. The latter with positive effects on the competitiveness whole capability spectrum, considered to range from Artificial Intelligence (AI) and of the European Defence Technology and be the most promising, most needed or cyber defence, to new sensor technologies, Industrial Base (EDTIB). most pressing ones, as well as in terms of emerging materials and energy efficient operational value. Based on this catalogue of propulsion systems as well as unmanned Better equipment for CSDP missions identified opportunities, Member States are systems and robotics. An enhanced collaborative approach recommended to concentrate their efforts on is also needed in order to connect the following six specific ‘focus areas’ which Conditions for cooperation “favourable” capabilities together and improve readiness, are not only covered by the EU Capability The CARD reveals that conditions for preparedness and interoperability of forces Development Priorities agreed in 2018 but multinational cooperation in all six capability to be used in CSDP operations and missions, where the prospects for cooperation are focus areas are “favourable”, as well as from the report says, notably in those areas of the also looking particularly good (encouraging a time planning perspective. Therefore, a identified major capability shortfalls which number of interested Member States, broad participation of Member States can appear to be less likely addressed without national programmes already underway or in be expected in collaborative projects related common involvement. This would enable the pipeline), namely: to those areas, at system and subsystem the EU to effectively conduct part of the • Main Battle Tanks (MBT) levels, which includes linking these new most demanding operations, it concludes. In • Soldier Systems collaborative projects to already existing order to boost the Union’s operational CSDP programmes, the report finds. performance in the short and medium term, • European Patrol Class Surface Ships the report recommends Member States to • Counter Unmanned Aerial Systems It therefore urges Member States to make concentrate on the following priority areas (Counter-UAS) full use of all identified collaborative for operational collaborative opportunities: • Defence applications in Space opportunities (especially to inform national Power Projection, Non-Kinetic Engagement • Military Mobility defence planners, including the next Capabilities and Force Protection.

EUROPEAN DEFENCE MATTERS I 2020 I Issue #20 9 COVER STORY – CARD: WHAT’S NEXT? After the first CARD: What’s next? Now that the first Coordinated Annual Review on Defence (CARD) has delivered its output, it is up to Member States to grasp the many cooperation opportunities highlighted in the report. After all, the CARD is only the beginning of a process designed to trigger collaborative projects leading to joint capabilities able to strengthen Member States’ Armed Forces and Europe’s collective military clout. So, where to go from here? We took the pulse of Ministries of Defence asking a sample of them – key decision-makers from The Netherlands, Romania and Spain – to answer three identical questions on their country’s views and intentions as regards the CARD follow-up. We also invited General Éric Bellot des Minières, the current Chairman of EDA’s Steering Board in Capability Directors’ composition, to share his views on the CARD follow-up in an exclusive Opinion Editorial. © Bundeswehr - Marcel Kroencke - Marcel © Bundeswehr

10 www.eda.europa.eu Arie Jan De Waard, Armaments Director at the Dutch Ministry of Defence “CARD shows areas where cooperation is most

needed and urgent” Netherlands The of Defence © Ministry

What has been the biggest added-value or lesson • Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications for defence and human 1 learnt of the first CARD, from your perspective? factor aspects such as manned/unmanned teaming are important. They are among the promising topics for longer term The CARD report and analysis is a great work for which I applaud research. and thank the European Defence Agency (EDA). It underlines the broad knowledge and expertise of EDA. CARD is showing us the The Netherlands will definitely work on those projects. I would overall defence capability landscape. It clearly indicates that the also suggest that we use the next few months to take a closer landscape is rather fragmented, still not very coherent and look at the CARD analysis and decide on promising options for interoperability is not guaranteed. further cooperation at our next EDA National Armaments Directors (NADs) Steering Board Meeting in March 2021. To overcome this, Member States need to synchronise their planning and coordinate the spending. This will take time but With the first CARD report delivered, are we moving at least, through the clear recommendations, the CARD shows 3 closer to a Europe of Defence? us directions and areas where cooperation is most needed and In order to arrive at a synchronised coherent picture, ideally, the most urgent. CDP and the Overarching Strategic Research Agenda (OSRA) In concrete terms, how does your country intend to guidance as well as the CARD outcome lead to the selection of 2 use the CARD findings and recommendations? high priority projects that are taken forward either under PESCO or the classical EDA framework or some third alternative. For the Netherlands, the CARD analysis has clear recommendations which we are staffing at the moment. To The European Defence Fund (EDF) would support these initiatives mention some of them that look very promising to us: with financial means. I do realise that the EDF has another legal base and sits in another framework, however it is our common • development of the soldier equipment programme: cooperative effort to connect the two worlds and spend the EDF smartly with projects in that field will lead to more interoperability, in my eyes projects that really matter. one of the main objectives of collaborative work; Therefore, the CARD results need to be part of the annual EDF • development of Counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems (CUAS): work programme discussion. Following this logic of coherence, they are very important to counter one of the future threats; the CARD capability picture should inform the discussions on the • Military Mobility (MM): for us, as the Lead Nation of the PESCO Strategic Compass regarding the ‘capability box’. project on MM, this would also be an area to develop further So, yes with CARD delivered, we have another strong tool for EU cooperative efforts; defence cooperation.

EUROPEAN DEFENCE MATTERS I 2020 I Issue #20 11 COVER STORY – CARD: WHAT’S NEXT?

Simona Cojocaru, Romanian Defence State Secretary and Chief of the Ministry’s Department for Defence Policy, Planning and International Relations “Time is ripe for new phase in implementation of EU

defence initiatives” of Defence © Romanian Ministry

What has been the biggest added-value or lesson learnt What is crucial is to establish the output-oriented link between 1 of the first CARD, from your perspective? these efforts as the pieces completing the puzzle that will lead to real progress: more effective European defence cooperation which The CARD process has already proved to be a crucial instrument in supports Member States to develop the capabilities they really providing us with a comprehensive state of play regarding need, together. cooperation in developing defence capabilities, as well as a pathfinder for the implementation of EU priorities. As I mentioned earlier, we see the challenge of ensuring coherent capability development which takes into account the trans-Atlantic Taking the next step to increase convergence between national dimension. With 21 EU Member States in NATO, we have to ensure defence plans and EU collective endeavours requires a gradual that EU and NATO defence planning processes are mutually synchronisation and mutual adaptation of defence planning reinforcing and provide a coherent output. processes and enhance our capability development practices. At the same time, ensuring complementarity and avoiding 3 With the first CARD report delivered, are we moving duplications between CARD, as well as the Capability Development closer to a Europe of Defence? Plan (CDP), and respective NATO processes, such as the NATO Defence In our view, defence initiatives (PESCO, CARD, EDF) set a new level of Planning Process (NDPP), is key for the fulfilment of our efforts. ambition for the EU in taking greater responsibility for its own defence. These initiatives represent key cooperation tools for a more With the first CARD report on the table, it is now the right moment to coherent European landscape of defence capabilities and an assess the implementation and achievements of the CARD process integrated approach. and look at the challenges awaiting us in the short and medium term. Although the CARD process is quite young and has a positive Given the role expected to be played by CARD, this would probably be collective dynamic, we are now more committed to further focus our the main EU vehicle to harmonise and synchronise the process of efforts on embedding the EU defence initiatives into national defence addressing the shortfalls, and this should be duly synchronised with planning processes and to making better use of these tools. the NDPP. With the results of the first full CARD cycle delivered, Ministers of In concrete terms, how does your country intend to use 2 Defence now have for the first time a full and comprehensive the CARD findings and recommendations? overview of the entire European defence landscape in order to Romania remains keen on making progress to better integrate EU decide what future steps can be made to transform our joint efforts initiatives and processes into the national defence planning system. into a more efficient output. Beyond the harmonisation of the planning processes we are also In this context, we expect to see different pieces of the larger picture seeking coherence of output in concrete terms, demonstrating that coming together and getting a new impetus in the efforts to consolidate the complementarity of efforts also covers projects which deliver the EU’s role on security and defence. From this perspective we results, in particular those developing capabilities under the PESCO consider the time is ripe to enter a new phase in implementing European framework. defence initiatives and achieve better integration. We strongly believe that, through CARD, we could contribute to To conclude, I want to express the belief that strengthening our delivering on the agreed capability priorities, recognising shortfalls cooperation will further contribute to reaching the EU Level of Ambition and identifying all necessary measures to be taken in order to and to consolidate the EU-NATO strategic partnership. mitigate their effects.

12 www.eda.europa.eu Saturnino Suanzes Fernández de Cañete, Capability Director at the Spanish Ministry of Defence “Spain intends to make the most of the collaborative

opportunities identified of Defence © Spanish Ministry by CARD”

What has been the biggest added-value or lesson 3 With the first CARD report delivered, are we moving 1 learnt of the first CARD, from your perspective? closer to a Europe of Defence? Besides the inherent value of the CARD as a tool to provide 2020’s CARD report is just a baby-step in the endeavour of decision-makers with useful recommendations and a defragmenting the European defence landscape. At the same comprehensive picture of the European defence landscape, I time, it is also a gigantic step forward in the longer-term effort of strongly believe that the biggest added-value of 2020’s CARD embedding European Union’s Capability Development priorities into is the completion, for the first time, of a full CARD cycle. This is a Member States’ planning processes. Results will not be visible in milestone in the building of the European capability development the short term, and we will need to give time before we will start to process that cannot be underestimated. see the first encouraging results, but it is amazing to realise how far we have moved forward since 2016, when we started to put in In addition, I consider that the six focus areas highlighted in place the foundations of the suite of initiatives (CARD, PESCO, EDF...) 2020’s CARD report, as well as the identification of a large number that we are now using to develop the capabilities required by the of collaborative opportunities, provide a solid basis for a renewed European Union. European cooperation effort from 2025 onwards. By the same token I strongly believe that the time has come to In concrete terms, how does your country intend to 2 concentrate our efforts on achieving greater coherence. Coherence use the CARD findings and recommendations? needs to be addressed at all levels: (1) within the EU, by assuring In the current strategic context of growing geopolitical the synchronisation of all the initiatives already in place; (2) at competition between China and the , European a national level, by guaranteeing a sound integration of EU’s countries face a formidable challenge. They must collectively capability development tools in national planning processes; and preserve their ability to act as credible security providers, by (3) by continuously auditing the input-output link existing between filling-in the defence capability gaps caused by more than one EU’s capability priorities and the capabilities obtained by means of decade of underinvestment, while at the same time dealing with multinational collaborative programmes. the effects of an unprecedented economic crisis. Finally, and from a broader perspective, we will also need to Spain intends to make the most of the collaborative opportunities persist in our efforts to build a shared European strategic culture. I identified by CARD, in order to mitigate the effects of this crisis personally consider this common culture as a pre-requisite to the in its defence budget and, by doing so, also contribute to the building of a Europe of Defence; our future Strategic Compass will development of the priority capabilities required by the European be instrumental to this end. Union to fulfill its Level of Ambition.

EUROPEAN DEFENCE MATTERS I 2020 I Issue #20 13 COVER STORY – CARD: WHAT’S NEXT? Defence cooperation is needed, urgently!

By General Éric Bellot des Minières, current Chairman of EDA’s Steering Board in Capability Directors’ composition.

Europe’s security environment continues Among the capability initiatives of the EU, tools created by the EU. In just a few years, to deteriorate. A rise in threats is the CARD plays a central role. It provides we have created the relevant capability relentlessly challenging the world an overview of the capability areas and mechanisms from scratch. Let’s take pride order, and these threats have already proposes cooperation opportunities for in the remarkable work that we have done. destabilised regions bordering Europe. Member States. There is no doubt that the These instruments form a coherent, output- Clearly, if they are not contained, they risk CARD is a valuable instrument for fostering oriented system, intelligently interlinked undermining the security of the continent. cooperation between Member States. with the NATO Defence Planning Process It is therefore essential that Europeans (NDPP). take more responsibility for their defence. A fragmented capability landscape Accordingly, the European Union (EU), at the The first CARD review is done. The European Of particular note: heart of Europe, must increase its capacity Defence Agency (EDA) and the EU Military • The European Union Global Strategy for assessment, decision-making, and to Staff (EUMS) have jointly accomplished (EUGS) sets the security and defence take more effective action. remarkable work, of noteworthy quality objectives of the EU and its Member and relevance. Insightful conclusions have States. The Strategic Compass will I am convinced that ambitious and been drawn. My main impression is that allow this strategic ambition to be more effective cooperation between the the European capability landscape is still precisely defined. This is a welcome and Member States will enable the EU to meet very fragmented, too fragmented. This promising initiative. these challenges and establish itself as a has an impact on the interoperability of security provider. European Armed Forces and diminishes the • The Headline Goal Process (HLGP) effectiveness of the investments of each identifies and prioritises the capability We have already accomplished a great Member State. For example, in 2017, the gaps which have to be addressed to deal in that regard. We have practical, Robert Schuman Foundation1 estimated that achieve the level of military ambition of coherent tools for spearheading a this ‘lack of Europe’ had cost nearly EUR 25 the CSDP. Acknowledging these needs will capability development process that is billion, or 11% of the annual defence budgets mean that the Member States will devote bearing fruit. The particularly encouraging of the Member States. most of their capabilities to the EU. results of the 2019 European Defence Industrial Development Programme We can and must do better! We have the • The Capability Development Plan (CDP) (EDIDP) have clearly underscored this. 16 ability to build a strong Europe that is able to offers solutions for addressing such gaps projects were thus selected, 9 of which shape its own destiny. through cooperation. The CDP is a driver were duly launched under the Permanent for providing the defence industry with a Structured Cooperation (PESCO). Almost Let’s act together – and now! full capability picture. As such, it is vital 80% of the grants awarded in 2019 will be I am convinced that we will achieve our that its capability spectrum is broad and allocated to them. goals by making full use of the capability does not change too frequently.

14 www.eda.europa.eu © French Ministry of the Armed Forces

• The Permanent Structured Cooperation • The CARD is the driving force behind (PESCO) promotes the convergence capability cooperation. It measures the of Member States’ defence policies, level of EU capability development and enabling them to cooperate better. We proposes collaborative solutions to the must concentrate all our efforts on Member States for improvements. respecting the 20 common commitments underpinning PESCO. It is clear that soft power is no longer enough to contain the insecurity now raging at the • The European Defence Fund (EDF) adopts borders of our continent. “Europe cannot a multiannual approach to subsidising and must no longer outsource its security structural and inclusive capability and defence.”2 It is therefore essential General Éric Bellot des Minières projects responding to duly expressed that the EU is more active in particular in (aged 56) was promoted General on military needs. When developing these encouraging cooperation between Member 1 November 2020. During his projects, the Member States would States, as in the end they are the legitimate military career, he served in many benefit from exploring the six focus areas users of military force. foreign operations, inter alia, in identified by the CARD. It is a relevant , Djibouti, Rwanda, , 1 Question d’Europe, No 486, Robert Schuman source of inspiration which should Foundation, Paris-Brussels, 1 October 2018. , Kosovo usefully feed into our reflections on the 2 Jean-Claude Juncker’s statement at a high-level and . future. conference on defence, Prague, June 2017.

EUROPEAN DEFENCE MATTERS I 2020 I Issue #20 15 OPINION ARTICLE: EU MILITARY STAFF (EUMS) CARD must be used “wisely and effectively” The first Coordinated Annual Review on Defence (CARD), an impressive piece of information-gathering and analytical work, was steered by the European Defence Agency (EDA) as CARD penholder in close coordination with the EU Military Staff (EUMS). In the following opinion piece, EUMS Director-General, French Vice-Admiral Hervé Bléjean, reflects on the CARD’s importance and gives his view on the role the EUMS played in it.

Interest in security and defence has been shared by individual Member States grown considerably over the last few on a bilateral level, to be pulled together into years, with the EU strengthening its role a comprehensive aggregated picture of the as a global player and security provider. EU’s defence landscape which will foster a Surging interest in this field – fired by common and deeper understanding of our , an increasingly assertive Russia security and defence environment. “Invaluable information exchange and the US administration’s unpredictable platform” attitude towards Europe’s security – led As part of the CARD secretariat, the EUMS In this perspective, the CARD has offered to the 2016 EU Global Strategy (EUGS) and, was fully engaged in this first 2019-2020 invaluable help because it allowed the EUMS consequently, to an increased Level of cycle and cooperated well with EDA and to measure to what extent the EU is taking Ambition on Common Security and Defence the European External Action Service. It has care of its major strategic shortfalls through Policy (CSDP). nurtured the CARD on one of its main areas the implementation of the High Impact of responsibility: the planning of the EU Capability Goals and, at the same time, In the wake of this strengthened military capabilities. build a comprehensive picture of the EU’s commitment, the EUGS triggered a chain engagement in operations and missions. In reaction paving the way for a more In fact, besides our operational duties, we other words, the CARD permitted to highlight ambitious CSDP in which achieving a are called to support the Council in the remits major connections between the EU security sustainable level of strategic autonomy and of the so-called “Headline Goal Process” & defence landscape and the EU CSDP with a sovereignty is an essential EU requirement. where, under the guidance of the EU Military focus on its military Level of Ambition. In an unprecedented move, the EU launched Committee (EUMC), the necessary political several capability-based initiatives as part guidance and the military requirements From an EUMS perspective, the CARD of the EUGS implementation. Among others, are set, where Member States’ existing represents an invaluable information the CARD was established as a link between capabilities are collected and analysed, and exchange platform allowing Member States national defence planning and EU priorities. where the main EU military shortfalls are to share notable information in the field of identified. All of that with one big common capability planning and development and, Great potential objective: the fulfilment of the EU military more importantly, discuss and shape EU I would like to underline the great potential Level of Ambition. To this purpose, a specific guidance in the defence field with a view the CARD has. In fact, it puts in our hands set of High Impact Capability Goals (HICG) to progressively building a deeper common an important new tool which we have the has been defined by the Council since strategic culture. responsibility to use wisely and effectively 2018 to help and guide Member States in to achieve tangible results. It allows defence achieving specific and tangible results in For the first time ever, the CARD Secretariat and planning and spending information, that has the short and medium term. the EUMS as part of it held a comprehensive

16 www.eda.europa.eu The low commitment to CSDP missions and operations is confirmed by continued force generation problems.

Looking at the root causes, a fragmented perception of strategic threats appears to drive Member States’ defence postures. Differing perceptions of the security situation and the disparate strategic orientation of Member States’ foreign and security policies remain a key issue. They drive Member States’ defence profiles and shape their operational efforts.

To conclude, as stated by High Representative , the EU is a “player in search of an identity” and we need © EEAS to strengthen our efforts towards building a stronger European strategic culture. In this discussion on security and defence directly development. This will foster cooperation perspective, the CARD has great potential with every Member State in its own capital, among Member States through the to inform the development of the Strategic thus fostering a broader European dialogue identification of collaborative opportunities Compass, which may connect and bring on these issues. The CARD bilateral dialogues for capabilities development. In this regard, national perspectives on security and were particularly beneficial as they were the EUMS has identified specific priorities defence closer, pursuing a deeper common conducted back to back with the Headline areas among the High Impact Capability “strategic culture”. Goal Process and bilateral NATO meetings. In Goals, addressing major shortfalls that this regard, the CARD and the Headline Goal so far have passed ‘under the radar’ and, Process have benefitted from each other. due to their nature and size, need to be This has led to a more effective and coherent overcome with a collaborative approach. information-sharing thereby providing the They cover three domains: Power projection EUMS with a deep and clear insight into (e.g. aircraft-carriers and amphibious the factors that influence national defence capabilities), Non kinetic capabilities (e.g. planning processes. It also allowed the EUMS Cyber effects, Strategic Communication) to draw a realistic picture of Member States’ and Force Protection (specifically high-end efforts in CSDP operations and missions. Ballistic Missile Defence).

At the same time, the CARD is also One of the main outcomes of the CARD is functioning as an effective decision-making that the EU CSDP military Level of Ambition © EEAS platform with direct results for the Ministers appears not to have been fully embraced by of Defence through the presentation of the national security and defence policies. This Vice Admiral Hervé Bléjean officially final report. has led to a fragmented EU security & defence took over the command of the EU landscape in terms of national defence Military Staff (EUMS) and the In this context, the CARD has the potential to postures which affects Member States’ Military Planning Conduct inform national defence planning processes forces, capability profiles and operational Capability (MPCC) at a ceremony and, consequently, increase coherence footprint, with direct consequences for their held on 30 Jun 2020. in national capability planning and commitments to operations and missions.

EUROPEAN DEFENCE MATTERS I 2020 I Issue #20 17 COVER STORY – FROM CARD TO PESCO

18 www.eda.europa.eu Helping hands Having the Coordinated Annual Review on Defence draw Europe’s current defence landscape and identify opportunities for collaborative capability development – two taskings the CARD delivered on in its first report – was never meant to be an end in itself, but a crucial stepping stone towards concrete multilateral capability projects. Expectations are thus high that the CARD’s results and recommendations will actually be taken up by Member States and feed into the EU’s Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO), for subsequent review by future CARD cycles. To help get PESCO projects off the ground, the European Defence Agency (EDA) offers to participating Member States a variety of customised support options. With growing success.

While EDA has always been recognised “Collaborative projects are an integral part for initiating and supporting multinational of our DNA,” says EDA Chief Executive Jiří capability development and R&D projects Šedivý. “Having the Agency provide this implemented under its own auspices, kind of support to PESCO projects was a the Agency’s growing support for PESCO natural progression of what we have long projects is probably less known, but all the done for other defence projects.” more important. The Agency, which jointly runs PESCO’s This got off to a quiet start in early 2018 by secretariat with the European External Action providing modest administrative support to Service, including the EU Military Staff, offers a couple of PESCO’s smaller-scale projects, three forms of support to PESCO projects. but has since grown to more than a dozen, including some involving major weapons Administrative support platforms. (See text boxes for various PESCO The first is administrative support by helping projects supported by EDA.) And more are in a PESCO project to organise meetings, and the pipeline. providing rooms or facilities for

EUROPEAN DEFENCE MATTERS I 2020 I Issue #20 19 Marine Nationale © French COVER STORY – FROM CARD TO PESCO

project-related work and meetings. “This For example, the PESCO project led by Fully-fledged EDA project has proven especially valuable during to develop rapid response cyber- The third form of support, however, the Covid-crisis,” said Darius Savolskis, defence teams “will deliver stand-by teams applies when participating members of EDA PESCO policy officer. “Many physical ready for intervention quite soon, and that a PESCO project choose to establish their meetings were planned for spring 2020, will be a good thing,” observed Savolskis. project as a so-called ad hoc Category when the pandemic’s first wave hit Europe, “Given enough time, PESCO will start B (Cat. B) project at the Agency, which and these had to quickly be moved over delivering bigger things, too, but it requires means other Member States can choose to virtual formats, which we’ve enabled some ‘strategic patience’ until then.” to opt into, or join, the endeavour at a later through EDA available tools.” stage. Consultancy and expertise Some of the PESCO projects that have The Agency’s second form of PESCO support “This is our most extensive form of support requested this kind of support are led is consultancy and expertise. “Here, we agree where the Agency functions as the project by smaller Member States. “While those on the specific tasks we’ll carry out for a manager,” said Savolskis. “The project countries don’t always have experience in project. This could entail support in capturing members, of course, will decide how the management of complex multinational the detailed operational and technical much responsibility to give the Agency. projects, the advantage of the smaller requirements, as well as developing its At the same time, however, we have to or softer PESCO projects is that they will ConOps (concept of operations) by a certain take into account the resource and time deliver results faster than the bigger ones,” deadline or defining specifications for its implications of doing that – will it fit into he said. technical study,” he observed. EDA’s workload, in-house expertise, and

20 www.eda.europa.eu “Having the Agency provide this kind of support to PESCO projects was a natural progression of what we have long done for other defence projects”

At a glance: List of PESCO projects whose implementation is being or has been supported by EDA

Project Co-ordinator Project Title EDA project

AT CBRN Surveillance as a Service (CBRN SaaS)

BG Deployable Modular Underwater Intervention Capability Package (DIVEPACK)

IT European Patrol (EPC)

Consultancy and expertise

LT Cyber Rapid Response Teams and Mutual Assistance in Cyber Security (CRRT)

BE Maritime (semi)Autonomous Systems for Mine Countermeasures (MAS MCM)

FR European Secure Software defined Radio (ESSOR)

© SAAB FR Materials and components for technological EU competitiveness (MAC-EU) priorities? That can involve some heavy work such as the project’s contracting and financial oversight, managing, organising Administrative support work group agendas and meetings and DE Geo-meteorogical and Oceanographic (GEOMETOC) so on.” Support Coordination Element (GMSCE)

Normally, the Agency absorbs as a FR Materials and Components for Technological EU matter of routine all the indirect costs Competitiveness (MAC-EU) – contracting, legal services, etc. – of supporting PESCO projects. Because DE Cyber and Information Domain Coordination Centre (CIDCC) the project will rely on the Agency’s resources paid by all the EDA countries, FR EU Collaborative Warfare Capabilities (ECOWAR) the Cat. B project requires the approval FR Timely Warning and Interception with Space-based of each EDA participating Member State. TheatER surveillance (TWISTER) And it may require a contribution-in-kind from the PESCO consortium such as RO European Union Network of Diving Centres (EUNDC) seconding personnel to the Agency’s headquarters in Brussels to help manage RO CBRN Defence Training Range (CBRND TR) the project.

EUROPEAN DEFENCE MATTERS I 2020 I Issue #20 21 COVER STORY – FROM CARD TO PESCO

With a little help from the Agency Focus on a selection of EDA-supported PESCO projects

CBRN Surveillance as a Service (CBRN SaaS)

The first PESCO project that asked for EDA assistance for its development as a fully-fledged Cat. B project is known as ‘CBRN SaaS’ (CBRN Surveillance as a Service). Launched in 2018, it brings together Austria, as the lead country, with © Bundeswehr four other EDA Member States: , , and . With prototyping pegged for 2023, the project will demonstrate EDA will oversee the Cat. B project, from defining the technical the viability of a rapidly deployable, 24/7 CBRN surveillance requirements to developing the prototype systems’ design and plug-in module to augment a common operational picture. It will testing. benefit either military or civil security users, and thus can be used across a wide range of missions. Despite the project’s rather cryptic name, CBRN SaaS aims for a very important goal for Member States’ Armed Forces: A crucial technical challenge will be to ensure that future to come up with concepts for combining and integrating capabilities emerging from the project are interoperable with commercial and military off-the-shelf components onto national legacy CBRN surveillance systems. CBRN SaaS’s main unmanned aerial and ground vehicles in order to detect and deliverables will be a technological demonstrator that provides identify Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) a proof of concept; a roadmap identifying what future modules threats and create a recognised CBRN picture. could be developed; a concept of operations; and a service availability concept to reach the full operational capability.

DIVEPACK

One of the PESCO projects supported by EDA, focused on specific niche capability, is DIVEPACK. Its aim: to develop a full-spectrum package of defensive underwater ‘intervention’ capabilities that can handle everything from search-and- rescue support to naval mine countermeasures or harbour protection to underwater repair, salvage or demolition tasks. © Austrian Bundesheer The intended users do not include special operations forces, however. Under the related Cat. B project, EDA has a major oversight Launched in April 2020, DIVEPACK’s envisioned modular role for DIVEPACK’s preparatory phase, namely to oversee design will be based on an open plug-and-play architecture harmonisation of its military requirements, elaboration of its to link together scuba-equipped personnel with unmanned business case, and other documents needed for a smooth and remotely-operated underwater vehicles. The various acquisition phase afterwards. capability packages will fit into standard-size container Once the requirements are defined, they will be handed over modules that are transportable by either land, air or maritime to the project at the beginning of 2022, after which its four means, and operated by specialised personnel. DIVEPACK’s participating nations – , France, , Romania – will technology goals, for example, are fully aligned with the have to decide on the way ahead: how the system will look, priorities found in the EU’s Capability Development Plan, which and then signing contracts with industry to deliver DIVEPACK’s is steered by the Agency. prototype for testing in 2024.

22 www.eda.europa.eu European Secure Software Defined Radio (ESSOR)

Efforts to develop advanced Software-Defined Radio (SDR) technologies resonate deeply at EDA, which has long supported various research and developmental efforts

toward that end for more than a decade. © ESSOR consortium The ‘ESSOR’ PESCO project not only builds on those efforts but takes the same name as a previous research effort, which and expectations of the operational users (from tactical level first surfaced in 2008. ESSOR’s main objective is to create a to component command) on the information flows and new common SDR architecture and standardised waveforms. waveforms. “We did a ConOps study in spring 2020 which Together, this would offer a reference point for SDR includes several scenarios, and we’re using that to shape the developments across Europe. project’s work,” said Darius Savolskis, EDA policy officer for PESCO. It’s a project with many strands of work – from defining technical requirements to framing the right industrial “The ConOps itself should be updated very soon, probably in solutions – and big implications for interoperability between November. After that, ESSOR will have to decide whether to Member States’ Armed Forces. That explains why ESSOR has continue with the further support of EDA in parallel to carrying nine participating countries (Belgium, Finland, France, the results over to OCCAR (the Organisation for Joint Armament , , Netherlands, , , Spain) and Co-operation),” he said. another four as observers. ESSOR’s industrial work is slated to begin in early 2021, with a EDA’s involvement with the ESSOR PESCO project has been in budget of €37 million, already secured from the European its initial but primary stage, namely to facilitate the Commission’s precursor budget for the European Defence development of an ESSOR’s concept of operations (ConOps). Fund, known as the European Defence Industrial Development The ConOps aims at describing the operational needs, visions Fund, to support capability development and prototyping.

European Patrol Corvette (EPC)

The (EPC) is one of the most ambitious PESCO endeavours that EDA will soon take under its management wing.

A four-nation project (France, Italy, Greece and Spain) of © significant scale, EPC’s goal is to produce a prototype for a new class of 3000-tonne naval ship. Its common mono-hull challenging because of different requirements of project platform will be no greater than 110 meters in overall members” said Darius Savolskis, EDA’s PESCO policy officer. length, based on a flexible, modular approach designed to Indeed, the sheer scale of the project demands a 30 month accommodate different systems and payloads. This novel period just to harmonise all its operational requirements, a task approach enables each nation to tailor the baseline platform to “for which our Agency has the responsibility to oversee,” he its particular capability needs, thus enabling a wide range of said, noting that EDA “will not write the requirements, but will missions. manage the whole process.” EPC will be a significant undertaking. “This is one of the The EPC group of nations aims to produce its first corvette most prominent PESCO projects we have, which is also quite prototype in 2026-2027.

EUROPEAN DEFENCE MATTERS I 2020 I Issue #20 23 FOCUS: GERMAN EU PRESIDENCY

German EU Presidency: Strengthening the EU on security & defence

In the following article, German State Secretary to the Federal Minister of Defence, Benedikt Zimmer, outlines the main challenges, key assumptions and goals of the current German EU Presidency (second half of 2020) in the field of security and defence.

Challenges in times of crises However, especially COVID-19 has the As a start, the EU needs the capacity to The current pandemic is probably only the potential to serve as a catalyst and even provide support and assist in the direct and discernible culmination of a development aggravate current and future conflicts. We immediate management of the crisis. In the that has already posed great challenges therefore have to take action to prevent the long run, we have to be able to act in order to both the international and our European ongoing health crisis from transforming into to position ourselves in a post-COVID-19 community. It will certainly continue to put a security crisis. order, especially in the domain of security the rule-based international order and the and defence. Increasing resilience will global balance of power under perpetual Key assumptions empower the EU to be a capable and reliable pressure. The concentration of crises in Despite the progress made in deepening the partner in international crisis management the 21st century will also have far-reaching EU´s Common Security and Defence Policy through acting in a solidary, effective and consequences for the EU. Now, more than (CSDP) over the past years, the ongoing cooperative manner. To achieve this, a close ever, we need to stand together in the crisis has revealed not only strengths but cooperation and coordination between EU, unified by a clear vision regarding our also weaknesses in our system. Europeans as well as their transatlantic values, interests and ambitions. Our citizens partners in NATO is essential. To advocate expect a strong EU. An EU that protects The first ‘lessons learned’ illustrate the for these necessary improvements, the and defends them facing any kind of crisis. necessity to focus on two core issues. German Presidency of the Council of the EU

24 www.eda.europa.eu has taken a slightly different course than European cohesion and solidarity are the will also provide more transparency for our initially planned. guiding principles of the German Council partners. The initial step is the first common Presidency. Without them, even the best threat analysis at EU level. Goals of the German Presidency instruments remain ineffective. We believe Given these manifold challenges, a central that all EU Member States should continue At the same time, given the current goal of the German Presidency of the EU to work hand in hand to further enhance challenges due to the COVID-19 Council is to enhance European resilience CSDP and to stay in close coordination pandemic, we are already increasing our in the area of security and defence with our partners. First and foremost, we responsiveness. With the PESCO project comprehensively. We will actively work need to be clear about our intentions and ‘European Medical Command (EMC)’ at its towards consolidating and building the EU´s objectives. With the Strategic Compass, we core, European Medical Cooperation 2.0 role as an anchor of stability with the ability want to find the much-needed commonly will lead to higher resilience and closer to act as a global player in international agreed basis between EU Member States cooperation among the Armed Forces crisis management. To achieve this, we on this overarching question. This increased of the EU. Going beyond the EU, the EMC will intensify the close coordination with all strategic clarity will help us to plan more will closely link with NATO’s Multinational stakeholders, aiming for a new impetus of prudently and to act more decisively – if Medical Coordination Centre (MMCC) and cooperation. and when European action is required. This thus create a vivid symbol of

EUROPEAN DEFENCE MATTERS I 2020 I Issue #20 25 FOCUS: GERMAN EU PRESIDENCY

“We will actively work towards consolidating and building the EU´s role as an anchor of stability with the ability to act as a global player in international crisis management”

much-needed closer cooperation between to explore ways to improved Strategic The current COVID-19 pandemic may NATO and the EU. Capability Planning in the EU. This planning only be one of several crises throughout should take into account the overall picture the 21st century, but it emphasises the We are aiming for an EU that is able to act of the European capability landscape to necessity to develop an EU that is more -with partners or if necessary on its own ensure a more comprehensive planning resilient and able to act towards a variety of - appropriately and decisively where its and a more coordinated decision-making, different challenges. This will require more interests, values and security are affected. including coordination of capability cooperation and coordination between all As key instrument, PESCO must strive contributions of EU Member States. This EU Member States. Within its Presidency of to meet ambitious objectives during the should be based on existing procedures the Council of the EU, Germany will contribute upcoming second initial phase 2021–2025. within Council structures to ensure a clear to strengthening this development through We will actively support making tangible political monitoring and guidance as well forward-looking projects, encouraging the progress in PESCO and its projects as as close cooperation and coordination of all following Presidencies to continue pursuing well. This includes finalising the provisions actors involved. this approach. Together we will take a for Third-States’ participation. We are significant step forward towards an EU convinced that the participation of Third The success and credibility of our that stands ready to defend and protect its States in PESCO projects, especially of operational efforts also depend on citizens, and acts as an anchor of stability in Allies and close partners, is in everyone’s our ability to not only train, but also to an unstable world. interest. Furthermore, it is important that sufficiently enable our partners in missions. we continue to invest in defence and We want to make sure that through the thereby substantiate our ambitions with European Peace Facility, the EU will for the the necessary funding. first time become a full spectrum security provider. To this end, we will be working Benedikt Zimmer was appointed For the first time, a defence title is integrated towards an EU that has the necessary State Secretary at the Federal into the EU budget through the European means at hand to plan, conduct and Ministry of Defence in Berlin on 5 Defence Fund (EDF) and Military Mobility. command its Operations and Missions April 2018. The Directors-General We want to make sure that we finalise the effectively. Furthermore, we want to for Equipment as well as for Cyber EDF regulation as quickly as possible in achieve the certification of the Military and Information Technology report order to start funding concrete projects Planning and Conduct Capability. We intend directly to him. Mr Zimmer is also for common and interoperable capabilities, to enhance cooperation between civilian responsible for the Directorate- thus closing European capability gaps. and military structures in this area. The EU’s General for Planning affairs. Before resilience also needs improvement in the being appointed State Secretary, As coherent political coordination and digital field and through innovative digital he served as Director-General for decision-making in the Council are solutions. This is why we strive to advance Equipment at the Ministry from essential to progress in this matter, we efforts to strengthen digital skills and cyber 2014 to 2018. will start a consideration process, ideally defence capabilities of the Member States’ based on the Strategic Compass, in order Armed Forces.

26 www.eda.europa.eu OPINION: STRATEGIC COMPASS

Towards a Strategic Compass for the EU Concrete solutions for concrete challenges

In June, EU Defence Ministers commenced work on a ‘Strategic Compass’ to be adopted in 2022 to guide the implementation of the EU’s Level of Ambition on security and defence. Building on a threat analysis, the Compass will define policy orientations and goals in areas such as crisis management, resilience, capability development and partnerships. In the following Opinion Editorial, EEAS’s Deputy Secretary General for CSDP and Crisis Response, Charles Fries, shares his analysis and expectations on the work underway.

The urgency of the EU’s new security new security and defence initiatives and comprehensive analysis of threats and initiatives launched in recent years is not take concrete steps forward to enhance the challenges. Based on input from EU national diminishing. EU’s strategic autonomy. civilian and military intelligence, this analysis On the contrary: recent events in Belarus, will map the key trends, challenges and , and Nagorno-Karabakh confirm To give new impetus, based on an up-to- vulnerabilities that the Union faces in the how deeply unstable countries and regions in date understanding of the evolving medium term. It is the first time that the EU our direct vicinity are. At the same time, direct security situation, High Representative undertakes such an effort. This intelligence- threats to the EU’s security, for example Josep Borrell proposed to develop the led document provided a substantive basis through terrorism, hybrid threats and cyber- Strategic Compass: a new political strategic for the discussion Defence Ministers had in attacks are growing as well. Moreover, we document to be adopted by the Council in November to start elaborating the Compass. see a more geopolitical competition between early 2022. It provides an opportunity to major powers at the global level, exacerbated tackle the most pressing political questions Following the threat analysis, we will engage by the COVID-19 crisis. that the Union faces in the area of security in a strategic dialogue with Member States and defence. to assess the implications for our policies. These challenges affect our security and This dialogue should enable Member States strategic position, and compel us to work Reinforcing a common understanding of to reinforce their common understanding even harder to become more resilient and threats and challenges of the security threats we collectively face, more effective in security and defence. It is The first step in the development of or, in other words, to enhance the European therefore imperative to fully implement the the Compass is the presentation of a security and defence culture.

EUROPEAN DEFENCE MATTERS I 2020 I Issue #20 27 OPINION: STRATEGIC COMPASS

conducting ‘contingency planning’ for the existing EU capability planning and “It is imperative to possible future operations. We could for development instruments by setting clear fully implement the example assess if we would be ready if a goals and objectives that help overcome crisis in our neighbourhood requested quick these critical gaps. The responsibility new security and and effective EU action. Or how we can of the Member States to make defence defence initiatives further develop the Coordinated Maritime cooperation the norm and fill critical gaps Presence-concept, after a successful together should in this regard be further and take concrete pilot project in the Gulf of Guinea. In other promoted. steps forward words, we should do a ‘stress test’ from time to time and ask ourselves regularly Working pro-actively with our partners to enhance the the question whether the EU would be able, In a world of disorder, the EU needs partners. EU’s strategic willing and capable to act in a certain crisis To cope with the evolving security context scenario. the Compass should help to promote a autonomy” more strategic approach to partnerships. Better protect the Union and its citizens It should identify concrete ways in which Improving the Union’s ability to act Addressing conflicts and crises beyond our the EU’s cooperation in peace, security The Strategic Compass should address the borders also contributes to our own security and defence with partner countries and growing need, in a volatile world, to be able at home. We need to be better prepared partner organisations, notably with the UN, to act quickly and decisively as a security to protect ourselves and strengthen our NATO and OSCE, as well as the African Union provider. Enhanced engagement through resilience. We should address vulnerabilities and ASEAN, can be reinforced. This should CSDP missions and operations, with more in the security and defence sector, including contribute to the overall aim of the EU to robust and flexible mandates, is key. We drawing lessons from the COVID-19 promote multilateralism, including in the also need to have strong civilian and pandemic. This is why the Compass should area of security and defence. military command and control structures. help strengthen the EU’s position in strategic The Military Planning and Conduct domains such as cyber, maritime security In conclusion... Capability (MPCC) has already been and space. The Compass should also I know that I am putting forward a very mandated to be able to plan and conduct an address disruptive technologies affecting ambitious approach to the Strategic executive military operation (approx. 2500 security and defence, such as Artificial Compass, but we live in challenging times troops) besides their ongoing role limited to Intelligence or quantum technologies that and we need to find common answers to the training missions. The question is, however, support an innovative European Defence questions that I raised. Together with the whether this structure is sufficient for the Technological and Industrial Base. Member States and with the support of EDA EU’s Level of Ambition set in 2016. and the Commission, we will address these The Compass could also contribute, from challenges in the months to come with a Member States’ contributions, both to a security and defence perspective, focus on concrete solutions. missions/operations and to the MPCC, are to the protection of European critical currently lagging behind. The Compass infrastructures, security of supplies or even should address this issue and its access to raw materials. This should lead to underlying causes. We must ensure that our strengthening the EU’s resilience in critical operational engagement is in line with our sectors as well as the EU’s ability to counter political decisions, for example those taken hybrid threats. Furthermore, we should in the PESCO framework. The Compass elaborate on the use of EU instruments such could be used to work on incentives to as the Mutual Assistance Clause (article make it easier and more attractive for 42.7 TEU) where discussions are already Member States to contribute, for example ongoing. by making the mandates of missions and operations more flexible, by extending the Strengthening our capabilities through © EEAS financing of common costs and further cooperation operationalising the integrated approach. If we want to enhance our ability to act Charles Fries was appointed as the The European Peace Facility, which should and protect ourselves better, we need the European External Action Service’s enter into force at the beginning of next right capabilities. Defence cooperation has (EEAS) Deputy Secretary General year, should already be a good step in the been high on the agenda for many years for CSDP and crisis response in right direction. and the European Defence Agency (EDA) February 2020. He previously plays a significant role in this regard. Yet, served as the Ambassador of Furthermore, we need to be better prepared the EU still lacks critical military capabilities. France to and Morroco. for the future, for example by regularly The Compass should therefore guide

28 www.eda.europa.eu IN THE FIELD: CIRCULAR ECONOMY IN DEFENCE

Advancing Circular Economy in Defence As concern for climate change grows, so do efforts to mitigate it, with the EU having led the way. At the forefront of its initiatives is the European Commission’s Green Deal, unveiled in December 2019. A central part of it is the “Circular Economy Action Plan”, which aims to boost the recycling of resources, lower waste levels and, crucially, to reduce Europe’s dependence on imported strategic materials and components.

This has direct implications for the States, to help steer them toward a more intensive will need to join European defence industry which circular defence. the effort as well, by looking at the overall needs to turn greener to reduce its ‘circular’ possibilities, from additive (or 3D) environmental impact while strengthening By some estimates, a well-implemented manufacturing techniques to reforms of Europe’s strategic autonomy. The circular economy in general could reduce their procurement rules. European Defence Agency (EDA) will be Europe’s consumption of new materials working closely with the Commission via by more than 30% within 15 years and by Within EDA, the notion of a circular basis of a new “Incubation Forum” to generate a whopping 53% by 2050. However, to get consumption and production that loops in

cooperative project ideas for Member there, Member States’ energy-and-resource European Defence well pre-dates the Green © Daniel Fazio

EUROPEAN DEFENCE MATTERS I 2020 I Issue #20 29 IN THE FIELD: CIRCULAR ECONOMY IN DEFENCE

Deal’s launch. As early as 2016, the Agency Green Deal. The concrete goal? To explore any other player (e.g. industry or private commissioned a study from Cambridge whether the share of the EU LIFE Programme research groups) to compete for funding,” University to examine if and where national under DG ENV management could provide observed Di Toro. Last June, the European Armed Forces had greened their activities EDA with funding to help transition Europe’s Commissioners approved the required and procedures, and how these could be militaries to a more circular footing. amendment to the EU LIFE Programme, applied more widely across EDA’s then 27 thereby entrusting EDA with the budget. Member States’ militaries. EDA has already been cooperating with the European Commission (namely DG Energy As a result of this, the Commission’s DG “That study, completed in November and the Executive Agency for Small and ENV and EDA plan to sign the final grant 2017, definitely demonstrated the circular Medium-sized Enterprises) on topics related agreement by early 2021, in order to launch economy’s interesting potential and many to the European Green Deal to promote a new forum to help apply the Green Deal’s advantages for defence,” says Pierre energy efficiency methods across national Circular Economy approach to the European Di Toro, EDA’s Policy Officer for Industry militaries, for example. That led to the defence sector. Mainly funded by the DG engagement & EU policies as well as access creation in October 2015 of the “Consultation ENV’s long-standing LIFE programme (under to EU funding. “Not only did it point to those Forum for Sustainable Energy in the Defence its environmental actions) and managed by Member States who are addressing the and Security Sector” (CF SEDSS), a European EDA, it will be called the “Incubation Forum issue, but also to the need for a more Commission funded initiative managed by for Circular Economy in European Defence” structured and collaborative approach EDA which is still thriving. (LIFE IF CEED). A two-year effort, it will have across their Armed Forces.” an initial budget of at least €900,000, with As for the circular approach to European DG ENV contributing 55% and the balance EDA-Commission cooperation Defence, “the first milestone was to embed coming from the Defence Directorate of Preparations for such an approach are this idea at the highest political level of the Luxembourg’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. in the pipeline. In February, based on European Commission by putting it to the an EDA Steering Board mandate, the Commissioners themselves. Essentially, Incubating projects Agency officially began consulting with we asked the following question: could The new initiative will organise conferences the Commission’s Directorate-General for you entrust EDA directly with EU LIFE and workshops bringing together experts Environment (DG ENV) about the potential budget, because as an intergovernmental from defence ministries, industry, national of circularity in defence within the new EU EU Agency, EDA should not be treated as research centres and universities to

30 www.eda.europa.eu exchange innovative ideas and share from implementing circular best practices. Finally, ensuring that all militaries reference lessons learnt on the best practices and Here one could think of practices that lack as much as possible the EU’s REACH ways to apply the circular economy concept attention to environmental and recycling (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and to the defence sector. aspects, such as outdated storage and Restriction of Chemicals) directive would be disposal techniques for ammunition. another important objective. “The main aim would be to incubate cooperation projects with as many Member The reduction or re-use of operational Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it is States as possible – things with a concrete waste is a key circular economy goal, as difficult to predict when the Agency’s new impact,” Di Toro said, adding that EDA’s would be requirements that commercially circular economy forum will be able to hold constituent defence ministries may at produced goods and supplies which its first physical meetings. “Here we clearly anytime define the specific topics for the militaries purchase have longer life-cycles have an issue”, explains Di Toro. “For the future forum’s work. “If we can come up built into them. Europe’s obviously time being, the pandemic means only virtual with clearly defined projects, with groups seek that for their weapons and platforms, meetings can be organised, which is not the of Member States willing to develop them, but there are many other areas of military best for building together new collaborative EDA will search funding at European level to activities that could be reoriented toward projects based on the necessary high levels implement and make them happen”. circular efficiency and recycling, such of trust and confidentiality that are inherent as clothing or other personnel gear. For to the defence sector. We’ll have to keep our There are several potential circular economy- instance, the Dutch has moved fingers crossed for the new year, hoping related aspects for Europe’s militaries to determinedly in this direction in recent that actual meetings will steadily take place tackle. These include additive manufacturing, years (see box below). again,” he said. energy and environmental improvements, smart materials, green procurement rules, the recycling of materials and supplies often thrown away after use, and revisions to national laws that could open the door to a more circular economy in defence.

Ministries of Defence’s procurement rules are also an incredibly challenging part of the whole circularity equation, according to Di Toro. “To what extent is circularity already there? Well, to the best of our knowledge: not enough yet,” he said. “The scope for improvements is simply vast, from mandating © Ministry of Defence The Netherlands the eco-design of commercial-off-the-shelf technologies to the recycling of batteries to more use of electronic communications Dutch circular ingenuity for reducing paper consumption. Indeed, digitalisation, which is nothing new, becomes While there are almost endless possibilities for circular efficiencies for Member a key principle for the circular economy.” States’ militaries, some are more obvious than others. One surprising source is soldiers’ clothing and personnel items, as shown by the Dutch Defence Ministry. Industry-wide participation will be important. Traditionally, any used workwear and gear would be incinerated to prevent misuse, “We want all defence-related and dual-use which meant everything had to be entirely replaced. It was also expensive, costing sectors that sell to the military, to become the MoD €500 000 per year to destroy materials that still had re-use value in them. involved in this Incubation Forum to provide In 2017, the government’s central procurement entity for clothing and personnel DG ENV and other Commission’s DGs with equipment, known as KPU, began applying circular principles to its purchases of relevant feedback so that future EU policies uniforms, helmets, specialised gear, and other personnel equipment for the 60,000 on circular economy are defence-friendly personnel across the country’s , army, air force, and military police. The goal regarding the EU’s rules on procurement,” was to extract re-useable materials, extend all the items’ service life, and thus he said. reduce waste.

Tackling regulatory barriers KPU’s textile recovery effort now generates additional annual revenues of €750,000

One early IF CEED priority could be to analyse for the Ministry, while saving 14,500 tonnes of CO2 each year – a sterling example of the regulatory barriers that unintentionally smart procurement via closed-loop recycling. obstruct Member States’ Armed Forces

EUROPEAN DEFENCE MATTERS I 2020 I Issue #20 31 IN THE FIELD: CIRCULAR ECONOMY IN DEFENCE

Interview with European Commission (DG ENV) Director-General Florika Fink-Hooijer “Circular economy is a clear business

case for defence” © European Commission

What role does Circular Economy play in the directly or indirectly employed in the sector would particularly benefit from net-savings. European Green Deal? in Europe. Like any sector, there are still Setting up collaborations with the private The Commission’s Circular Economy Action untapped opportunities to ensure a reduced sector can also establish a productive Plan is one of the flagship initiatives of the environmental impact. The circular economy discussion and exchange of knowledge European Green Deal. Through this Action presents a clear business case for the around the requirements, opportunities, Plan we want to lead Europe towards a more defence sector to be more sustainable limitations and barriers to the introduction of resource efficient, clean and climate neutral while keeping up the competitiveness of the the circular economy in defence. economy. The circular economy is a new defence industry. economic model for the EU. It proposes a For example, in the Netherlands, the Dutch change in the way we produce and consume To integrate circular economy models into Ministry of Defence, uses circular principles to become more resilient, more innovative the defence sector successfully means to reduce waste and extend the service life and more resource efficient – and partly more that the models must not only address of uniforms, helmets, and other personnel autonomous. resource consumption but also the priorities equipment for the navy, army, air force of the armed forces: namely capability, and military police. In Portugal, some pilot It is also a great opportunity for companies performance, security of material supply, programmes have been set to integrate who will be more competitive by being efficiency and research and technology. recovery and reuse of materials into the future more circular. On the one hand, because a Innovation and new business models maintenance of jets without affecting military more circular economy will help Europe to brought by increased resource efficiency, efficiency and operational capacities. These decouple economic growth from resource development of new materials, promotion and other actions throughout the product consumption. On the other, because the of secondary raw materials and more lifecycle and the value chain can reduce circular economy offers a key contribution sustainable public procurement will in turn the environmental externalities of Defence, to achieve a climate neutral Europe. The not only preserve the environment but also while ensuring efficient collaboration and 2019 Ellen MacArthur Foundation/Material ensure security of supplies, create new jobs, cooperation within the community, which Economics Report tells us that greenhouse reduce costs for SMEs and larger companies is a good way to support inclusive change. gas emissions are not falling quickly enough and make the most of public spending. I understand that these efforts do not start to achieve climate targets and switching to from scratch, as the European Defence renewable energy can only cut them by 55% Can you already anticipate what impact the Agency (EDA) has already started exploring of what is needed to reach the 1.5 degrees EU’s Circular Economy policy might have the topic with reports and individual projects target. The remaining 45% of emissions must on defence capabilities, procurement and aiming at improving the knowledge base, and come from how we make and use products, industry? also to measure impacts. and how we produce food. The benefits for defence capabilities, procurement and industry lie in promoting the How can the Commission help the defence Why is it important to have the defence circular economy through the use of Green sector move towards Circular Economy? Is sector also included in the EU’s Circular Public Procurement criteria, for instance, to there EU funding available for this purpose? Economy? foster circularity in uniforms and clothing, or The circular economy is one of the building The European defence industry generates supporting remanufacturing, reparability or blocks of the European Green Deal, Europe’s a total turnover of €100 billion per year reverse logistics. Moreover, a large part of the strategy for sustainable growth. Funds and 1.4 million highly skilled people are defence sector is composed of SMEs – which are available to support all stages of

32 www.eda.europa.eu development of an innovation contributing to For the implementation through the performance, security of supply and the circular economy. For the research phase structural funds, at regional and local efficiency in the defence sector are in the development of new technologies level for specific military sites or at undeniable. through Horizon Europe, looking for example national and transnational level for a at research on electronic application for large-scale application. It is important An EDA project dedicated to circular smart equipment. For the related testing to keep an eye also on the adoption and economy could be a good opportunity through LIFE, which covers at the same time implementation of the European Defence to reap the benefits of a more circular circular economy, natural resources, climate Fund. The potential long-term gains in economy in the defence industry. We are mitigation and adaptation. technological advancement, capability, working together to make this happen.

Three questions to... Luxembourg’s Defence Minister François Bausch

Luxembourg is a driving force behind the effort to integrate circular

economy into defence, in particular through the new Incubation Forum © MoD Luxembourg for Circular Economy in European Defence. Why this particular interest and what are your objectives? If implemented at an early stage of the research and technology Our quest for sustainable development needs to include a closer look at phase, the mainstreaming of circularity principles into our defence the life cycle of the various objects and products that we use in our life. supply chains can benefit European industry and economy We may actually have to question our linear “buy ¨ use ¨ make waste” significantly. Benefits may include: less pressure on the environment, economic paradigm in favour of a circular approach, in which we design more resource efficiency and a higher security of supply of raw buildings, vehicles, machines and other objects and products in a way, materials, increased competitiveness, a boost for innovation and that they can be better maintained, repaired and reused at the end of economic growth, additional jobs and support for the EU to maintain each ‘value cycle’, without becoming ‘waste’ and, if possible, without its leadership in setting international industrial standards. having to be altered structurally. We are aware of several interesting initiatives in various Member The implementation of this new concept of circularity involves a States. But, to our knowledge, none of these has reached a status of design that needs to anticipate and include the various maintenance, widespread implementation so far. repair and reuse possibilities of objects and products as well as of their respective components and materials. These possibilities of Do you already have topics or project ideas in mind, which could be maintenance, repair and reuse need moreover to be communicated and brought to the Forum, in view of being shared and implemented with shared between producers and potential users. Hence, information and other participating Member States? In our view, while taking on board all the experience gained in various data sharing becomes key. pilot initiatives across Member States, it would be important to focus And which sector would be better suited than defence to start testing on enabling the operationalisation of circular material, component and and rolling out this new concept in which anticipation and forward product flows in European defence and to address potential barriers, planning are inherent to the system? Moreover, the community of which are often of regulatory, technical, organisational and financial defence producers and users is often highly specialised and limited nature, and may impede the implementation of circular economy to the same sector and there is already an established culture of principles. monitoring and sharing information. Among the enablers, in particular, I see advantages that digitalisation All these arguments have motivated us to support EDA in establishing could bring, e.g. helping to increase transparency and data sharing an Incubation Forum for Circular Economy in European Defence. between producers and users of materials, components and Do you see a potential and willingness for increased European products, in particular about how to use, maintain, repair, reuse and, if cooperation in this domain? needed, remanufacture and recycle them after each value cycle. As European defence cooperation is growing and some Member In Luxembourg, a public-private partnership initiative has developed a States have decided to jointly design and procure new capabilities, the “Product Circularity Data Sheet” which is precisely trying to bridge this potential is huge. data-sharing gap and which is currently tested in various industries.

EUROPEAN DEFENCE MATTERS I 2020 I Issue #20 33 SPOTLIGHT: EDA-EU SATCEN COOPERATION

Natural Partners

The European Defence Agency (EDA) and the Madrid-based EU Satellite Centre (SatCen) have much in common: both are EU agencies with cooperation deeply rooted in their DNA, both serve the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and more specifically the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), and both have EU Member States as their primary group of customers. Hence, it is only natural that from the very beginning of their existence, the two organisations have continuously sought – and found – ways and means to cooperate and develop joint initiatives and projects whose added-value is beyond dispute.

The cooperation between the two agencies the Satellite Centre’s operational started informally and on a working experience with EDA’s proficiency in project level until July 2016 when a cooperation management is the perfect complement to agreement was signed in the form of an strengthen EU defence! They both strive to Exchange of Letters between the EDA remain at the cutting edge of technological Tangible results Chief Executive and the SatCen Director. developments and to continue to stimulate The EDA-SatCen cooperation focuses This agreement laid the groundwork for these developments in the field of on delivering tangible results in defence the harmonisation and synchronisation of defence and space”, said SatCen Director domains where Member States’ Armed the respective annual work programmes Ambassador Sorin Dumitru Ducaru. Forces (and thus Europe as a whole) suffer through a jointly agreed EDA – SatCen from a lack of capabilities. While the track cooperation roadmap. The roadmap is “Space-based capabilities have become an record of successfully mastered joint a good illustration of the dynamic and absolutely critical part of all Member States’ projects and activities is long, the following structured cooperation between the two defence capabilities and an indispensable tool examples only refer to still ongoing entities which outlines joint activities for for any civil/military mission and operation. activities which continue to be scrutinised the years ahead and can be updated on an It is therefore only logical that EDA, as the for potential further collaborations: annual basis. Any activity included in the hub for defence cooperation in Europe, has roadmap can be launched at any time on a teamed up with SatCen, the European provider • The GISMO (Geospatial Information to case by case basis. par excellence of space-based assets and Support decision-Making in Operations) services, to help Member States improve their initiative and the associated GeoHub “EDA and SatCen are really like-minded EU defence capabilities in this crucial domain”, (Geospatial Information Hub) tool are intergovernmental agencies – combining stated Jiří Šedivý, EDA’s Chief Executive. perfect examples of the good and

34 www.eda.europa.eu IN SHORT: EU SatCen mission & main activities © EU SatCen

• The Satellite Centre, headquartered in Copernicus Service in Support to EU Torrejón de Ardoz (Madrid area), is an External Action (SEA), the Centre operational agency supporting the EU in collaborates closely with the Copernicus the field of Common Foreign, Security, Programme

and Defence Policy, primarily by ESA Space Agency © European • It also provides other space & security analysing data from space-based assets related services as mandated by the beneficial cooperation of the two • The Centre, currently numbering some Member States: SatCen collaborates in agencies. Starting off as a pilot case in 145 staff (composed of agency experts the EU SSA/SST project (Space the ISR domain, GISMO has now reached and secondments from Member States), Situational Awareness / Space a Full Operational GEOINT Capacity. It has served its customers for over 28 Surveillance and Tracking), and includes operational and maintenance years: it was founded in 1992 as a participates in various Research and functions for a fully-fledged operational body and Innovation initiatives capability allowing the safe and reliable incorporated as an agency into the sharing of geospatial information (GI) European Union on 1 January 2002 within military headquarters (HQ). Already available in several EU Missions • SatCen provides fast, reliable, and and Operation Headquarters, the professional geospatial analysis services extension of the current phase 4 of to its customers as a solid foundation for GISMO will enable its deployment to the EU strategic autonomy in CFSP/CSDP EU Operational Headquarters in Larissa decision making, as well as actionable (Greece) and Rota (Spain), as well as to intelligence for EU missions and © EU SatCen the national geospatial centres of EU operations. As entrusted entity for the Member States.

EUROPEAN DEFENCE MATTERS I 2020 I Issue #20 35 SPOTLIGHT: EDA-EU SATCEN COOPERATION

• REACT (Radar imagEry Applications with currently 20 contributing members. • GEONAW started in 2020 and has the supporting aCTionable intelligence) is a It aims to improve the participating objective to integrate threats posed to joint activity that started in 2016 and is countries’ common ‘recognised maritime Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) entering its 3rd phase (REACT III) this year. picture’ by connecting the various national functions in a geospatial environment to It focuses on improving the exploitation maritime surveillance systems and support Navigation Warfare scenarios, of radar imagery and addresses the facilitating an exchange of operational mission planning and operations. The first associated complexity of acquisition, maritime information and services such phase of the project, currently underway, evaluation and analysis of Synthetic as ship positions, tracks, identification is assessing the technical feasibility of Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite imagery. data, chat or images. MARSUR networking adding PNT threats assessment layers/ Associated with Industry, contracted has been used as support to CSDP functions to the existent GeoHub tool. A by EDA, the SatCen supports the . For this purpose, EDA follow-on phase is planned to start early development of the operational prototype has sponsored the training of MARSUR 2021, aiming to develop a first prototype tools and related services. REACT is operators and technicians and a capability of an operational tool based on the remotely accessible and available to demonstration at the EUNAVFORMED OHQ outcomes of the feasibility analysis and all EU Member States, SatCen and the for the Operation SOPHIA in May 2017. It is on the collected user requirements. European Border and Coast Guard Agency currently planning to launch, in 2021, its (Frontex). next phase, MARSUR III, to which SatCen Other areas for further close cooperation foresees continuing its participation. that are under investigation, such as: • MARSUR (Maritime Surveillance) is a • Next generation of (GOV)SATCOM collaborative project launched by EDA • Future SBEO (Future Space Based Earth Observation systems beyond 2030+), • Military Space Situational Awareness launched in 2017, is a wider initiative as Network it involves not only EDA and SatCen, but • Artificial Intelligence applied to the also EU Member States, the European Imagery Intelligence (IMINT) cycle at External Action Service (EEAS) including SBEO ground segment level its Space Task Force, and the EU Military Staff (EUMS). It defines the security and • Cyber Defence, CIS defence related technical requirements in • Research and Technology (RPAS, High terms of spatial and temporal resolution Altitude Platform Systems, etc.), CapTech to support military operational phases for Space Simulation EU missions and operations. It introduces and quantifies three proposed solutions Member States very much welcome (Earth Observation constellations, ground this cooperation that combines EDA’s segment and shared satellite imagery) expertise in the fields of governance, of a multilateral capability development harmonisation of technical requirements programme for interested Member States. and project management with SatCen’s It also includes the opportunity to submit longstanding operational expertise in those solutions to the European Defence providing space-based products and SatCen Director Ambassador Sorin Ducaru Fund for potential co-funding. services.

IN SHORT: EDA – SatCen cooperation milestones

• The cooperation between EDA and SatCen started shortly year ahead with special focus on the EU space policy and the after EDA’s establishment in 2004 and continuously Union’s security strategy intensified over the past decade. Both agencies are based • Key areas for joint projects are geospatial analysis and on Council decisions and perform complementary activities imagery exploitation, Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) tools in the field of CFSP/CSDP and techniques, future space-based earth observation • Since 2016, the agencies collaborate within the framework systems, CIS & cyber defence, big data exploitation for space of an Exchange of Letters between the two directors. On this and security, space situational awareness, and maritime basis, the annually updated EDA-SatCen roadmap reflects surveillance this structured cooperation, outlining joint activities for the

36 www.eda.europa.eu INDUSTRY TALK: CYBERNETICS

“We need to collaborate to create our own joint capabilities”

© Cybernetica

Europe’s security, and that of its Member States, will rely more and more on its ability to be up to speed with the most innovative and disruptive cyber technologies to counter growing threats from cyberspace. Lagging behind in this domain compared to the US or China, Europe must urgently overcome its national fragmentation, make a quantum leap in cyber defence cooperation and create the right conditions for research and industry to compete, says Oliver Väärtnõu, the CEO of Cybernetica AS, an Estonian cyber company, in the following exclusive interview.

Some experts predict the next war will cars and direct them against their users, or building up capabilities to protect itself and happen in cyberspace. With the technological pedestrians with possible lethal effects? also, to some extent, to create offensive insight you have, is this a real threat? One can definitely create a lot of havoc capabilities. The wider protection of society, I guess it all depends on the definition of and uncertainty only by using cyber as however, is not actually under the control war, but a cyber conflict is definitely a threat the domain of operation. Moreover, bear in of the Armed Forces. In peacetime, civil law one has to seriously consider and that has mind that preparing physical attacks often enforcement organisations are and should already materialised in various countries, requires much more resources and is so to be in charge of the cyber domain, but they e.g. in , etc. As countries speak ‘louder’ than achieving the same goals need to work closely with the military and become more and more digital and reliant on via the digital environment. share all necessary information with them, technologies, it becomes a lucrative attack as they will have to act in a real conflict vector to our adversaries. For example - why How well - or badly - are Europe’s Armed situation. In this context, a key aspect is to consider the use of kinetic force to attack Forces prepared for such a scenario? assess whether an incident is so severe that a powerplant if you can instead organise I think one has to make a clear distinction it is worth declaring a state of war against a cyberattack against it that achieves the between, on the one hand, how well another country or if it is just a hacking same impact when it stalls or interferes with the military is prepared to protect itself incident that doesn’t need escalation. the turbines? Or alternatively, take down against cyberattacks; and, on the other Furthermore, one has also to bear in mind a banking, payment system in a country, hand, how well the military is equipped that in the digital space, it is much harder to where the share of cash payments is less to protect society against such attacks. attribute an attack to an adversary than in than 20%? Or take over control of self-driving Currently the main focus is dedicated to conventional warfare.

EUROPEAN DEFENCE MATTERS I 2020 I Issue #20 37 INDUSTRY TALK: CYBERNETICS

How competitive is Europe’s cyber security & defence industry, compared to other players in the world? By looking at the big picture, one can say that Europe so to speak ‘discovered’ cybersecurity as a domain only when the previous European Commission, headed by Mr. Juncker, took office. Since then it has been one of the priorities of the Commission and also an important topic within the Member States. Of course, cyber incidents during elections, e.g. in Germany and France, have also increased its political importance. Nevertheless, it is fair to say that Europe does not have as strong a cybersecurity industry or companies than the US or Israel something that is critical to their national that requires our attention, is cross-border or even China. Looking at the investment capability and, therefore, they are keeping and national information sharing. If we want levels and ecosystems developed via their markets closed and their contracts local. to create knowledge in this domain, we need industrial policies, we have a long way to Although we boast that we have one of the to build trusted relationships and analyse go to compete. Though, the signs today largest internal markets in the world, it is not how acquired data can be utilised by all are promising – the EU is directing more really the case for the cyber domain. We hope parties in order to create a joint competitive funding, initiating discussions, and creating that the initiatives taken by the Commission, advantage. an EU Cybersecurity Competence Centre like the European Certification Scheme, will network to develop expertise in the field. We provide means to overcome these issues, How will AI or other new technologies have good scientific and research potential but time will tell. Also, we must consider how further change cyber defence in the future in Europe, but it does not predominantly the European industrial complex works and – both on the defender side and the side of express itself in companies but is rather what is the right balance between public and the cyber threat actors, and what does this concentrated in research institutes and private sectors? In terms of investments, mean for Europe’s security? government institutions. the situation has improved significantly over Artificial intelligence (AI) will definitely the years both from a research investment automate a lot of manual processes, What are the main stumbling blocks for perspective, as well as regarding access whether scanning the networks, finding improving cyber defence and security in to venture capital. However, comparing vulnerabilities, patching, etc. in the cyber Europe? What is missing, what needs to ourselves to the US and China, it is clear domain. Mind that this capability can be change? that we still need more emphasis on funding applied both in the defensive and offensive What the EU lacks most, compared to its cybersecurity. For example, Europe does not mode. It is most certain that Europe needs biggest competitors, namely China and USA, have a dedicated venture capital industry for to further invest in developing AI capabilities, is unity. Today we are in a situation where cybersecurity companies, like the US does. but, most importantly, it must create 27 Member States look at cybersecurity as Another issue that I would like to raise and environments for AI algorithm training. The

38 www.eda.europa.eu “We have good scientific and research potential in Europe”

What, in your view, is the best way forward for European cyber defence cooperation? Europe is a unique constellation. We cannot copy our way from anybody else but have to create it through collaboration, trial and error. If we want to be sustainable, we need to collaborate on the creation of our own joint capabilities - whether it is in the domain of a new fighter aircraft, the building of new naval capabilities or in the pursuance of cyber supremacy. We need to plan resources and operate together even when, at times, trust between Member States might not be the bigger the datasets are on which we train one part of the problem in cyberspace highest. The PESCO and EDIDP initiatives our (cyber) AI capabilities, the better these is the issue of situational awareness. are an excellent start for this joint capabilities become. We hear a lot about the Namely, how do militaries, governments, capability building. In the future, we need supremacy of China in the AI context – note and businesses understand their cyber to enhance this cooperation, see that the that these kind of centralised governance situational posture – what are the assets projects will not only be part of a small structures with a smaller focus on privacy they own, vulnerabilities and threats club of companies and that mishaps will enable the creation of enormous datasets for they are facing, and what are the risks if not impede our progress. One thing is for algorithm development and training. Europe something fails or is hacked? Thus, the sure – when dealing with innovation and has to find its own way on competing in EDIDP project is of strategic interest to us, creating new structures, mistakes will be this domain with possibly other supporting both from the content point of view, but also made. One needs to learn from these, not technologies, like privacy-enhancing because it provides a unique opportunity walk away from the endeavours. solutions, to provide a serious alternative. to work with different European Ministries of Defence and their cyber units, as well as You are part of the consortium developing top national defence companies, like INDRA, the European Cyber Situational Awareness Airbus, Leonardo etc. We hope that by the Platform through a project co-funded end of this project, countries that we have Cybernetica is an R&D intensive ICT through the EDIDP. How important is worked for, will have a cyber situational company based in Tallinn that this collaborative project for Europe’s awareness capability similar to what they develops mission-critical software cyber defence capabilities and European have for physical situational awareness systems and products, maritime industries? today. This, in turn, enables better protection surveillance and radio We are honoured and proud to be part of of European troops when deployed on a communications solutions to over the European Cyber Situational Awareness mission, giving us a competitive edge in 35 countries across the world. Platform development. We believe that conflict situations.

EUROPEAN DEFENCE MATTERS I 2020 I Issue #20 39 INNOVATION CORNER: EDA DEFENCE INNOVATION PRIZE 2020 And the winners are...

“Too close to call” was the jury’s verdict after assessing the many excellent proposals received from contenders from across Europe for EDA’s Defence Innovation Prize 2020. Hence, the announcement of two winners for this year’s contest which rewards the most innovative ideas, technologies and solutions for the countering of swarms of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), in particular to protect land facilities and platforms.

40 www.eda.europa.eu SWADAR The first of the two winning projects is called SWADAR (SWarm infrastructures, both in the military and the civil fields. The same ADvanced Detection And TRacking) and was proposed by the Centro concept may be applied also for the protection of mobile platforms Italiano Ricerche Aerospaziali (CIRA) based in Capua, Italy. (e.g., convoys of military vehicles). Moreover, SWADAR integrates and customises state-of-the-art technologies, provided by European We asked Domenico Pascarella, Senior Researcher and Head of stakeholders to secure the overall supply chain. For example, drone CIRA’s System and Infrastructure Security Laboratory, to explain and kits and sensors are produced by European providers. Also, the summarise his team’s project: simulation equipment for the learning of swarming behaviours may “SWADAR proposes a technological solution for drone-swarm represent a core asset for other defence activities. tracking to provide military commanders with an operational picture Currently, a five-year roadmap is envisaged for the implementation of of swarm attacks. It uses a defensive team of drones, which tracks the SWADAR prototype according to an incremental lifecycle, which will the hostile swarm from different perspectives. Defensive drones are release three versions with increasing capabilities. Follow-on activities equipped with proximal sensors to achieve the required resolution are expected for the prototype engineering, too. These include the and sensitivity. A coordination mechanism and an ad-hoc network management of safety and cyber-security aspects, looking also at ensure the cooperation of the defensive team to maintain optimal the possible insertion in civil environments (e.g., integration in national performance for tracking. A fusion of the drones’ views is also airspaces)”. performed to provide the operator with the common operational picture and to assess swarming metrics, which are key indicators to establish the most effective counter-actions and to possibly CIRA (Italian Aerospace Research Centre) automate the decision-making of mitigations. Moreover, the tracking is a company mainly in public ownership solution is extended with the automated recognition of the swarm- created in 1984. The Centre was attack scenario and with the learning of new swarming behaviours. founded with the aim of performing and This guarantees the adaptability of the system in the face of evolving promoting research and technological development in the fields of attacks. In the end, the human-interpretability of recognition results is space and aeronautics and enabling Italian enterprises to compete on allowed by a module based on eXplainable Artificial Intelligence. the international markets. CIRA has the biggest research facilities in the field of aerospace in Italy, with cutting-edge testing facilities and SWADAR aims at supplementing air defence systems by introducing state-of-the-art laboratories. a line of protection against intrusions of drone swarms within critical

Full-Duplex Radio Technology for Enhanced Defence Capabilities Against Drone Swarms The second winning project is called ‘Full-Duplex Radio Technology FD radios will be able to provide a similar level of functionality with half for Enhanced Defence Capabilities Against Drone Swarms’ and was of the spectrum resources that current radios use. That is a significant presented by Rantelon, an Estonian small to medium-sized company, advantage considering that the RF spectrum is largely congested. For in cooperation with Tampere University, Finland. European defence applications, FD radios pave the way for combining different EW tasks simultaneously on the exact same frequency Karel Pärlin, an engineer at Rantelon, explains and summarises their bands, perhaps resulting in truly multifunctional and cognitive winning project idea as follows: radios. Counter-drone applications are just one of the examples of “Amongst the principal methods for countering drones and drone how such combinations allow us to deal better with threats in the RF swarms is to target the radio frequency (RF) broadcasts from drones spectrum – by at the same time enhancing situational awareness and their ground control stations. That generally means detecting and neutralisation efficiency through simultaneous detection and those RF broadcasts and subsequently interfering with the reception neutralisation, amongst other combinations”. thereof. Ideally those tasks would take place simultaneously so as to retain situational awareness at all times and deliver the largest neutralisation impact through interference. However, carrying out Rantelon is an Estonian company electronic warfare (EW) operations, such as RF-based detection specialised in developing and producing and neutralisation, in the same frequency band simultaneously is radio frequency (RF) electronics, including low level components and impossible with conventional radio technology. That is because integrated systems, for a range of applications. The company provides EW equipment that intentionally interferes with any other wireless solutions from civilian cellular and public safety networks to various communication, is also at the same time blinded by that interference. signals intelligence and effector capabilities for the defence sector. In fact, that same limitation is also present in most other wireless applications that rely on transmitting and receiving information, e.g., civilian wireless local area and cellular networks. Tampere University – the winning Classically, this limitation is hidden from the end users by employing project is joint work with assistant spectrum division methods that split the transmission and reception professor Taneli Riihonen’s team in into either time slots or different frequency channels. Yet, by the Unit of Electrical Engineering. They introducing full-duplex (FD) radio technology, which is able to cancel are currently pursuing research on full-duplex counter-drone and the interference that any radio inherently creates upon itself, this radio shield technologies with support from the Finnish Scientific limitation can be removed. And FD radio technology is already proven Advisory Board for Defence and the Academy of Finland. on an academic level. For civilian applications, this simply means that

EUROPEAN DEFENCE MATTERS I 2020 I Issue #20 41 Quo vadis EU defence? A look beyond 2030

Will the next decade be decisive for the EU’s defence and its ability to take its destiny into its own hands? Will Member States finally abide by their promise made in 1999 at the Cologne Summit, and build a true “capacity for autonomous action, backed up by credible military forces, the means to decide to use them, and a readiness to do so” or will they carry on kicking the can down the road and paying lip service? In trying to answer these questions, one should examine how the EU’s defence could develop and what it should look like beyond 2030, says Frédéric Mauro in the following Opinion Editorial for European Defence Matters.

What the EU’s defence could look like is coming decade. We can easily identify two build a capability process able to produce a question that belongs to the realm of conflicting trends of the sort. One is the an ‘operational capacity’. That was the strategic prospective and would require willingness of national European leaders original intent behind PESCO, the Permanent a much more sophisticated analysis to retain as much as they can of their Structured Cooperation, three words that than permitted within a thousand words. alleged ‘sovereignty’ and to call the shots hide the one and only that sums them all up Nevertheless, inspired by the European for all defence aspects, be that operational and that really matters: ‘integration’. Strategy and Policy Analysis System’s (forces), industrial (capacities) or political report1 we can broadly distinguish three (decisions). This is the reason why the CSDP Sovereignty versus integration categories of drivers. is strictly intergovernmental, with little say Until now the national sovereignty approach for the European Parliament nor for the has always prevailed over the integrationist The first is constituted by mega-trends European Commission and almost always one. But that could change taking into which are developments already underway requiring unanimity. On the other hand, there account catalysts. Those are specific trends and nearly impossible to change over the is the obvious need for Member States to with higher degrees of uncertainty, that

42 www.eda.europa.eu QUO VADIS EU DEFENCE?

“EU defence will only take off if Member States set up a political body capable of issuing orders to an efficient chain of command and making national forces act as one, with others whenever possible, and autonomously if necessary”

move faster than mega-trends and thus Of course, all three categories of drivers – and autonomously if necessary. Much has accelerate or decelerate these trends. We mega-trends, catalysts, and game changers been said about strategic autonomy. But can identify three series of catalysts. The – are interlinked. They will play a positive decision-making is just as important. The first one is the level of threats. The Union is or negative role in the development of a number of participants is not relevant. You facing a lot of direct threats coming from both European defence, but the ultimate face of need only two to disagree. And, even if it nation states, such as Russia or Turkey, and it in 2030 will also depend on the decisions may take some time, you can find a deal at terrorist organisations. Moreover, it is also that must be taken now. As stated in ESPAS’s 27. In this regard the concept of an avant- facing insidious threats such as disunion, report: “foresight is much more about garde is misleading. It is more a question disinformation, or election meddling by shaping the future than predicting it”. of a common perception – some would say actors who see the Union as a foe. How and ‘strategic culture’ – and efficient decision- when those threats will materialise, and on That leads to our second question: what making procedure. Both elements are which battlefield, is still unknown. However, should the EU defence look like in ten years? necessary. the greater the threat is, the more plausible integration becomes. The same works for For the last thirty years, in the wake of This change of policy would require the second catalyst: the protection granted the and abiding by audacious leaders, big political steps such to Member States by third countries through the Monnet’s playbook, the question of as the creation of a European Security NATO. Anything that undermines the Atlantic the European Union’s defence has been Council taking decisions by qualified Alliance or weakens NATO strengthens the answered ‘bottom-up’, ‘step by step’, majority, and eventually the assent of the attractiveness of integration. If NATO were to building all sorts of industrial cooperation European nations involved. Today that might disappear, integration would impose itself. and setting up as many ‘tools’ as possible, seem impossible. But so was the fall of the The third catalyst is made up of the Member such as the or the Battle groups. Berlin wall. After all, “with regards the future, States political mindsets. Is it realistic to get This of course was done with a lot of it is not about predicting it, but to render it all the EU leaders (or at least a majority of ‘pragmatism’ which was tantamount to possible” (Saint-Exupery). them) on the same page, ready to integrate having ‘no plan’ other than the vague idea their national defence apparatus into one of ‘doing something’. Unfortunately, that 1 ESPAS – European Strategy and Policy Analysis System – coherent ‘full spectrum force package’, what strategy will never beget a genuine capacity Global trends 2030 – Challenges and choices for Europe – April 2019 implies specialisation, shared capabilities, for autonomous action. Because even in its and modification of the decision-making most audacious blueprint – PESCO – and its procedures? It looks like alignment of most advanced realisation, the Lancaster planets. That hardly happens in politics. At House agreement between France and least without any real game changer. the UK, the fundamental question of the political decision-making process has been Game changers deliberately swept under the carpet. These game changers are decisions that shape the future and yet have the lowest Decision-making degree of certainty. What could be the next Putting or defence industrialists ‘black swans’ after 9/11, the Arab spring, IS, together is definitely not the right starting Frédéric Mauro is Associate and Covid-19? Nobody knows. However, point for the EU’s defence. It has been done Researcher at the French Institute a war between Turkey and Greece or one for twenty years, producing the results we for International and Strategic between the US and China would deeply know. EU defence will only take off if Member Affairs (IRIS) and Lawyer at the bar affect the way European Member States States set up a political body capable of Brussels. He is specialised in consider the necessity of being able to of issuing orders to an efficient chain of defence matters and legal defend themselves, by themselves, and for command and making national forces act questions related to the Common themselves. as one, with others whenever possible, Security and Defence Policy.

EUROPEAN DEFENCE MATTERS I 2020 I Issue #20 43 European Defence Agency QU-AC-20-002-EN-N Rue des Drapiers 17-23 B-1050 Brussels - Belgium www.eda.europa.eu "'&$ ISSN 2443-5511 ISSN